Disappear
by The Whitest Shade Of Pale
Summary: She gone. With no trace. Rikki, where are you?
1. Disappear, Chapter One

Disappear Part 1

_And now she's gone. And nobody knows where she's gone. She could be anywhere by now. Her dad says he hadn't seen her since dinner last night. Me, Lewis, Ash, Cleo and Emma haven't seen her since the end of school. But she'll be okay, wherever she is. She's strong, stronger than any of us. Well, I'll hope she'll be okay. _

_Stop._

_Don't be stupid Zane, of course she will be okay. I mean; She's a 17 year old girl, she can go out for a day without anybody worrying about her. No text message. No note. No voicemessage. Something is up – Rikki wouldn't go anywhere without letting any of us know where she has gone. It's not...Rikki. Stop over reacting Zane. She is right now sat in the juicenet, waiting for you. Then when you all come in all flustered looking for her, she will most likely laugh at you. Yes – Let's go to the Juicenet, then you can share a banana beatbox, and then you'll be fine._

Aha! They're you go, there's Emma, Cleo, Ash, and Lewis. But no Rikki.

"Hey Zane" Said Ash.

"Hey..." I replied.

"Have you seen Rikki?" Emma asked, very concerned.

"No...That's what I was going to ask you..."

"Oh.."

"Where could she be?"

"Well, she's not answering her phone. She wasn't at school today, she's not at home, we've spent ages looking around the mall, she's not there either. She's obviously not here..Where else could we go?"

Silence.

"We're so stupid why didn't we think of this before?!" said Cleo, speaking for the first time since Zane arrived "Mako!"

"Oh yeah!"

"Come on Cleo, let's go"

-

"Rikki?"

"Rikki?"

"RIKKI!"

"Rikki?" Cleo squeaked.

"Hey Cleo, look at this"

"What? Have you found her?"

"No, but there's a note.."

"A note? Read it then"

"Oh. My God." They both said in unison.


	2. Disappear, Chapter Two

Disappear Part 2

_Well, I see by that you are reading this, it means that you care about your little friend Rikki, am I right?_

_Of course I am. _

_But, I have got her and there is nothing you can do. Well, there is something you can do. Turn over this piece of paper, and this will be your first clue. Why am I doing this you may ask, why am I helping you? The answer is simple. You will never find her, as you are all thick teenagers. And in the highly unlikely event you do find her, it will be too late._

_Try to find her if you want, but you will be wasting your time._

"So, that person doesn't want us to look for her, do they?"

"Yeah Cleo.."

"But we are going to look for Rikki...Right?"

"Oh yeah. Totally. No doubt about it."

"Cool, turn it over, lets look at the photo!"

"Okay.."

"Hmm"

The picture, which was in black and white, was of two people. A girl and a boy, in a room, with tables in the back; a restaurant, cafe?

"It's Mrs Chatham!"

"Oh yeah, it is Cleo! But who's the dude?"

"Her boyfriend?"

"Yeah. Maybe. Let's go show Lewis"

"Okay"

-

"Lewis!"

"Have you found her?" He replied, face bright, but the brightness quickly faded when he heard the answer.

"No, but we found this"

"What is it?"

"A note, with a photo attached, of a boy and Mrs Chatham, when they were young"

"Hmm...Interesting..."

"Do you know who it is?"

"No, but Max. Max will!"

"Yeah, come on!"

-

They rang the bell, but no answer. They rang again. But still, no answer.

"You know, another one of the upsides of living by the beach is being able to watch people knock on my door while I'm fishing! Hello Lewis, Cleo, Emma. Where's Rikki?"

"Oh. Hey Max, that's what we came to sort of ask you about."

"Really? Well, sit down."

The kids sat down, and placed the photo and the note on the table.

"What's this?"

"Well, we went to the moonpool, to see if Rikki was there, but we found this instead. There's a note which basically says that somebody has kidnapped her, and there's nothing we can do to stop them. Apart from follow some clues, but they reckon that we are too thick to work them out."

"Clues?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing they're this photo"

"Hmmm..."

"We know the girl is Mrs Chatham, but who is the man?"

"Ah, that is, if I am not mistaken, Mark Chadwick"

"_Mark _Chadwick?"

"Yes..Why?"

"Oh, just that Chadwick is Rikkis surname.."

"Ah well, Maybe he is her Grandfather."

"So that must mean that he knows something about where Rikki is!"

"Well, it's _possible_."

"Where is he, where does he live?"

"Slow down. I don't know, but Louise, I mean Mrs Chatham will know."

"What Retirement home did she go to?"

"That would be 'Golden sands retirement home'"

"Great. Lets go there, come on guys"

Cleo and Lewis walked away from the old mans house a little dazed at the speed of Emma's and Max's conversation.

"Come on!"

-

"What room is Mrs Louise Chatham in?"

"Why?"

"We're relatives, coming to wish her a happy birthday."

"Well, I have here that her birthday is the 19th of July, but whatever" Replied the receptionist looking out of the window at the leaves that were starting to fall off the trees.

"Yeah..We're just here to see her"

"Ok. Whatever. I don't care, she's a right pain in the neck, you must be mad going to see her. Room 23, on the second floor"

"Thanks"

"Whatever."

-

Emma knocked patiently on the door. Emma had obviously taken over the hunt for Rikki, she had become the senior detective, more like.

Finally, the door opened, and the old womans face lit up.

"Emma, Cleo, Lewis hello my dears, how may I help you?"

"Well, we were wondering if you knew-"

"Ice tea?"

"Um. No thanks. We were wondering if-"

"Bran biscuit?"

"No. Please listen to us, we need your help"

"_My _help?"

"Yes, we were wondering if you could tell us where the boy in this photo is, we think his name is Mark."

"Ah yes, I know him well. Very very handsome." She replied, sighing "He lives not too far from here. 13 Whitehouse Boulevard."

"Really?"

"Yes. Emma, would I lie to you?"

"No.."

"Why do you want to know where he lives anyway?"

"Well, It's Rikki. She's missing, and the only clue we have to find her is this photo."

"Ah, well. Good luck. Say hello to Rikki for me when you find her."

"_If _we find her."

"No Lewis, think positive. _When _you find her. Remember, 13 Whitehouse Boulevard. Turn left when you come out of the main door. Good luck"

"Thank you very much Mrs Chatham."

"That's Louise to you my dears"

"Thanks Louise" Emma said.

"Thanks Louise" Lewis also replied.

"No. That's Mrs Chatham to you."

"Oh."

"Bye!"

"Bye, and good luck"


	3. Disappear, Chapter Three

Disappear Part 3

Well. What a waste of time that was. 13 Whitehouse Boulevard happens to just be a burnt shell. It once was a house, but now it's a mass of rubble and ashes.

"Let's try next door?" Cleo suggested.

"No Cleo, the man lives at number 13, not 14."

"No, I mean we could ask the next-door neighbours where the man is."

"Oh. Right. Yeah, lets go."

Emma speed walked up the next houses front garden path, leading up to its oak door. She knocked smartly on the door, and waited.

"Hello.." A woman said, as she opened the door, with a child clinging round her neck.

"Hello. We are looking for Mark Chadwick, who used to live.. Umm.. There" Cleo said, nodding towards the pile of rubble next door.

"Ah. Mark, lovely chap. He was in the house when it went up. But sadly, he died in the blaze. He was quite an old chap, 82. You'll find him in the church yard, down by the church."

"Oh, thats a shame. Sorry to bother you, and thanks for your time"

"You're welcome. Say goodbye Lily." She replied, waving the little girls arm at us. The gang of teenagers walked down the garden path, and sat on a bench.

"Well that was pointless. The blokes dead."

"Yeah. We could go and visit the grave?"

"Ok, why not? He is Rikkis grandfather,"

"Come on then." Lewis said, putting an arm round Cleo, and whispered into her ear;

"Don't worry Cleo, we will find Rikki, no matter what. She is strong, she'll be fine"

Emma turned to look at Cleo, who was crying. Emma hadn't really noticed this, as her head had been stuck in finding Rikki, and the clues that surrounded her disappearance.

They entered the graveyard through the giant gates, and made their way towards the more recent burials. Cleo started crying even more when she saw a grave belonging to a 6 year old.

"Aha, here we go. Mark Chadwick. 1927-2009."

"Yeah, look at all those flowers"

"And notes, hey look. This one's in Rikkis handwriting."

"Let me see!"

_I'm so sorry Grandad they had to take you this way. You will always be with me, especially when I swim. But the repercussions will come to them. I love you_

_-R_

_xxxxxxxxxx_

"You don't think...He..Y'know, _knew._..Do you?"

"Know what?" Cleo answered, Emma lifted her eyebrows. "Oh..I don't know"

"Well, he was a friend, or, haha; boyfriend of Mrs Chatham. I'm thinking he did know. Like Max. But _'the repercussions will come to them' _what's that all about?"

"It sounds like...a planned death..And consequences"

"You mean" Cleo asked nervously "M-M-Murder?"

Nobody said anything.

"What's this?"

"What?"

"Another letter,"

"What does it say?"

"I don't know. It's all written..In like code, or another language or something."

"Let me have a look," Lewis passed the piece of paper to Emma. "Hmm, on the back, there's something else. In English! Like a report!"

"What? What type of report?"

"Looks like a scientific one to me?"Lewis said. "Let me have a look again"

"What does it say Lewis?"

"Well, basically, it saying about Humans..Da dee dah," He scanned over the page "Oh no."

"What Lewis?!"

"Someone's discovered the secret. And they've got ..They've got Rikki"

"WHAT?!"

"It's a woman, called Doctor Tween. At the local university, well, that's where it's adressed to."

"Well, let's go there then!"

"Emma...It's getting late, shouldn't we go home, get some rest..Then go tomorrow? Anyway, it's nearly dark, the lab will be shut by now."

"Cleo's right Emma, we've been running around for hours. We need some rest. We can meet again at the juicenet. Ok?"

"Yeah, sure. Bye guys"

_What happened to the daylight?_

-

"Wow, you're early." Cleo said, greeting Emma walking into the juicenet the next day.

"You can shout, you're here too"

"Oh yeah. Where's Lewis?"

"He'll be along in a minute"

"He'd better be. We really need to find Rikki. It's been at least a day that she has been in the hands of those scientists."

"There he is!"

"Come on Lewis!" Emma and Cleo ran out of the door, trailing Lewis behind them

-

"We're here to see Doctor Tween. We need to talk to him-"

The receptionist coughed "Her."

"We need to talk to _her _about her latest project, we are all students at the university."

"What project? I, I mean she, doesn't have a project at the moment. Why would you think I, I mean she has a project going on at the moment?"

"Ok then..Come on then guys.." Emma turned with Cleo and Lewis out towards the door.

Suddenly their was a distant, but piercing scream. Cleo turned around. Only to find the receptionist, right behind her, making her jump out of her skin.

"Just my latest patient, her waters broke this morning" The receptionist replied, look Cleo, almost evilly in the eye.

"Oh..."

The group burst into a run, and ended up sat on the grass on the other side of the building.

"She was weird."

"She was going to follow us."

"Something is definitely up with her. And that scream..."

"She is up to something. But we can't exactly burst into there Cleo, and walk in on some woman giving birth." Lewis went bright red.

"I don't like the look of her. She also kept saying I, but then changing it to she."

"She's very dodgy, I'll give her that."

Emma sighed. "So we're back to square one."

"Yes." Cleo and Lewis agreed sadly.

They all sighed, then Lewis asked;

"Where's Zane?"

_Sorry I didn't update yesterday, my parents thought they'd 'punish' me by disabling my wireless internet, and locking the other computer. So, I kept myself busy by writing this. I was try to update everyday, but if I don't fro now you'll have to live with it; School, homework etc. Parents. :(_

_=]_

_So, where is Zane? :O_


	4. Disappear, Chapter Four

Disappear Part 4

"Great," Said Emma, flopping down on one of the chairs in the juicenet. "This is hopeless, and we're back to square one. There's no Rikki, and we don't know where Zane is."

"Think _positive _Emma." Cleo replied

"Positive? POSITIVE? How can I be bloody _positive _when my best friend and her boyfriends are missing? Cleo? Hmm?"

"Girls Girls" Lewis began on cooling down the conversation "I will now go and ring Zane, to see if he answers. Okay?" The two girls mumbled a reply.

"Hello, Zane Benett."

Lewis turned round and give the girls a thumbs up

"Hey, It's Lewis"

"Have you found Rikki?"

"No..We were just wondering where you were.."

"Oh, Well Terry, Rikkis dad wanted to drive around the city to look for her, and his motorbike won't work, so he asked me to come round and fix it."

"Oh, okay, tell us when your done, okay?"

"Yeah, sure..."

"Okay, bye"

"Bye"

Lewis put the phone down, and sat down next to the girls.

"Well, where is he?"

"Round Rikkis, fixing her dads motorbike."

"Oh right"

Lewis's phone started ringing again;

"Hello"

"Um guys, you really need to come round and see this?"

"What?"

"Come round to Rikkis, Like. Um Pronto."

"Okay.."

"Right" Lewis turned towards the girls "Let's go to Rikkis, there is something we have, to see. Apparently."

"Oh. Come on then!"

The group ran out of the door, and and fast as they could to the local caravan park.

-

Zane met them at the entrance, and started talking while Emma, Lewis and Cleo caught their breath back.

"Right, I really didn't know what was up with the motorbike, then I finally found out what the problem is"

"Zane." Cleo breathed "What – has – got – to – do – with – find – ing – Rik -ki?"

"I looked inside the exhaust pipe, and found this" Zane produced a piece of paper from inside his pocket.

"Let's have a look then?" Emma said, being the only person in the group that had recovered from the running.

"_It's so funny that your friends have been within 20 metres of your precious daughter .Come and get her if you want to. If you know where."_

"What does she mean?"

"We've already been to the place where they are keeping Rikki.."

"That womans house?"

"That Lab in the university!"

"But that was a maternity suite.."

"CLEO! You can be so_ naïve _sometimes!"

"What..." Cleo whispered.

"That wasn't a maternity place. There wasn't a woman giving birth"

"But that person screamed.."

"That _person _was Rikki!"

"Oh."

"Let's go there then!"

"Come on Zane!"


	5. Disappear, Chapter Five

Disappear Part 5

It's been a week and a half since Rikki went missing, but now we know where she is! She's in a lab, which is worrying, but she will be ok. We have Lewis and Max, they'll sort her out. If anything is wrong. Which there won't be. I think the biggest kick in the teeth is that we have been so close to getting her back.

"What next Lewis?" Asked Zane, who was driving, so Rikki didn't have to walk home if we got her back- _When _we get her back.

"Second left"

"Ok.."

"Now, straight ahead, you can't miss it."

"Here?"

"Yeah, Come on!"

They pulled up in the car park, and walked into the building, met by the receptionist from their last, freaky visit.

"Ah. Hello children"

"Yes, Hello, we would like to know where Dr. Tween is."

"Aha, You're the children that are looking for your friends, am I right?"

"Yeah."

"Of course I am"

"Of course I am" Cleo whispered. That's what the person in the note said...

"Yes, so if you would just take us to Rikki, we would be very grateful"

"Woah. Hold your horses hotstuff" The receptionist said, stopping Lewis.

"We just need to get Rikki back, and we can pretend none of this happened. We won't even contact the police."

"You must be very concerned friends, very loyal friends."

"Yes."

"And two boyfriends, yes?" The receptionist gave a sly look. Lewis stepped back, affronted.

"No, I am her _only _boyfriend." Zane said.

"Ah, well I am glad."

"Look. Can we just cut the crap and get Rikki?"

"Woah, Cleo!" Zane said, astonished.

"What?" Cleo said, glowing red.

"Just, 'cut the crap' is just so..not you.."

"Yes. Whatever. So can we?"

"Right. This way."

The receptionist strode off, and down the corridor, as she turned a corner, she gave the group a very strange look. The woman stopped at a door, with a sign on it reading "Top Secret. Authorized Personnel Only" She began scanning her hand, unlocking locks, and putting in codes, and then, finally the door opened. A man in a lab coat greeted her;

"Hello Doctor Tween" Lewis looked towards the blonde 'receptionist'.

"So you're a scientist?"

"Yes, and this is my lab" She said, with a broad smile across her face, gesturing round the room. "And this, is my latest experiment." She finished pointing towards a metal slab. They all looked over towards where the woman was pointing.

Lewis said nothing.

Cleo burst into tears.

Emma whispered "Oh my god," and then burst into tears.

Zane just whispered;

"Rikki?"


	6. Disappear, Chapter Six

Disappear Part 6

"Oh my god."

"Rikki?"

Zane ran over towards the metal slab, or 'bed' that was placed in the middle of the dingy 'lab'

"Rikki? Rikki? Are you there? Rikki? Rikki Please wake up? Talk to me! Rikki!?"

"Zane.." Lewis came over, resting a hand on the distraught teenager.

Zane stepped back, and looked at the sight in front of him.

Rikki, the love of his life, just laying there. Completely out of action. She was in mermaid form, but her tail, which was once a beautiful shiny gold, was now a dull beige. She had some cuts, and a few bruises, she was also tied down to the table with restraints. _At least she put up a fight, _Zane thought. Her hair was all messed up and matted, and she had lost a lot of weight. She had many lines and drips flowing in to her, which Lewis was eyeing up suspiciously. Her arm was hanging off the side of the 'bed' and all the blood had rushed to her arm. Zane lifted her arm gently and placed it next to her body. He was a bit surprised to how deathly cold she was. Cleo launched herself at Doctor Tween, screaming at her. Lewis came over, and gently removed his girlfriend.

"What have you done to Rikki?" Cleo sobbed.

"Well. It's quite obvious, you idiot."

"Why did you do it?"

"Well, when I left Mr Chadwick, I always told him I was going to be back for revenge. And now I have it. I have his daughter, dying..Slowly.."She let out an evil laugh. "It's the perfect revenge really. His father was easy to get to. So old and fragile. All is secrets out. His granddaughter is a mermaid. What a freak. One wrong slip, one fire, the stupid old fart's gone. Oops."

"What?" Zane said, his voice echoing round the dirty room.

"God! You are all so thick! I wanted revenge on Rikkis father, so I bloody kidnapped his daughter! Do you want me to spell it out to you!?"

"No. We get that. But, isn't she _your _daughter too?"

"Yeah. I never wanted her. She was an accident anyway."

Emma looked at the Doctor, she couldn't believe how she didn't realise it earlier; the hair, the eyes, the build, the fair skin. It was so _obvious _they were related.

"But I though, as a Doctor of Science..You wou-"

"You're so gullible. I'm not a Doctor. Didn't try hard enough in school. Just drifted about. Getting off with whoever I could."

"Right. Let me get this straight. You're a murdering, kidnapping, lying, deceiving, psychotic, mother?"

"Yes. Well done."

"Right. So we will now take Rikki," Lewis slowly walked over towards Rikki.

"Undo the restraints" Emma said, untying Rikki from the metal slab.

"Pick her up" Zane continued, lifting up his girlfriend, taken aback as to how much weight she had lost.

"Fine. Take her. There isn't much you can do anyway."

"Cleo walked out the door, followed by Emma, then Zane, who was carrying Rikki. Lewis came through last, he had collected all the bags of liquid that had been flowing into Rikkis body, so he could test them, to see what had been flowing into Rikki all this time.

"Where are we heading?" Lewis said, he had taken over driving from Zane, who wanted to be in the back with Rikki.

"Go to Max's" Emma said.

There was the famous magical sound, as Rikki transformed back to normal. She was wearing her favourite green combats, and pink top with the face on the front. They were ripped, and you could see through to her bra. Zane took off his shirt, suspiciously eyeing up Lewis, and placed over Rikkis chest.

"Lewis...." Cleo said, getting nervous

"What Cleo?"

"R-Rikkis stopped breathing..."

"It's probably withdrawal symptoms from the stuff they were giving to her. Zane, give her, you know..Mouth to mouth"

"No worries mate. I've missed it"

Zane bent over awkwardly and started breathing air into Rikkis lungs.

Are we nearly there Lewis?" Emma asked.

"Yes.."

"Come on Rikki, hang in there" Lewis mumbled. "We're here"

"MAX!" Emma shouted

"Yes?" A voice shouted up the beach.

"Come here, we've got her."

Max ran, well, walked, he's old, up the beach.

The girls carried their fellow mermaid into Max's bungalow, and placed her on the sofa. She had finally started breathing on her own again. Lewis had disappeared into the kitchen speaking scientifically with Max. Finally, they came through, and sat opposite Zane Rikki, Emma and Cleo.

"She can stay at mine, I can keep an eye on her while you guys are at school. We need to keep her warm, and we need to give her some high quantities of sugar, she hasn't eaten anything..In a long time. I'll call you when she waked up. Ok?"

Everyday, for the next two weeks, they came round to Max's. Emma and Cleo vowed never to swim out to Mako until Rikki was there with them. Zane had redressed her in some of her other clothes her dad had given him, he didn't like Lewis looking at her like that. He knew he was into Cleo, But it didn't feel...Right.

But then finally-

A high pitched scream echoed through Max's living room.

"Rikki?" Zane moved towards Rikki, who had now started violently shaking.

"Get away from me. Leave me alone!"

Rikki, are you ok"

"What do you think mum? Get away from me?"

"Rikki, we are here to help you" Max said, smiling

"Lewis? What's going on?"

"She's hallucinating. She thinks we are her mother and her colleagues."

"Rikki. It's me, Zane. Your boyfriend. I want to help you."

"Get away from me!"

"Right, guys, lets leave her alone for a minute, ok?" Max said.

"Ok." They all came out of the living room, Zane kept looking at Rikki. He couldn't believe it. The person he would do anything for, couldn't even recognise him. He wanted his Rikki back not this scared girl. He couldn't take it any more. He bolted out the door, and ran onto the beach.

"I'll go talk to him" Lewis said.

"No, I'll go," Emma replied.

She walked out of the door, and immediately saw Zane on the beach, he was sat huddled up..Crying.

"Zane.."

"What?"

"She needs you. She needs all of us. Come back?"

"I can't do this Emma, it's too hard. She is in there, I can't stand her in there in so much pain. I don't like seeing her so scared like that."

"So you are breaking up with her?"

"No. I just..I just can't do this. Tell Rikki I still love her, Tell her I'll do anything for her to get better. Tell her I'm sorry."

And with that Zane ran off.

_He's gone and bolted._


	7. Disappear, Chapter Seven Finale

Disappear Part 7 - Finale

It's been four weeks now since Rikki came round from a mini-coma induced by her mental mother. She's so fragile right now, she just sits in her room all day, staring, at nothing. Well, apart from the wall. Every time anyone goes to visit her, she'll just sit there, I'm just glad that she's got over the whole screaming and hallucinating thing. Me, Cleo, Lewis and sometimes Max will come over, and we'll try to make conversation that normally ends up one sided. We knocked on the trailer door, and waited for Terry to answer.

"Hey guys" Terry said, once he opened the doors. He hid his emotions much like Rikki did, but you could tell he really was sad about his daughter.

"How is she?" Cleo asked, very concerned.

"You know, the same, just sat there. I shouldn't have let this happen. I should have protected her. I shouldn't have let her mum get to her like that..."

"It wasn't your fault Terry." I reassured him.

"I'm just glad she has you guys, you know, you are her first bunch of real friends. At her old schools, she never had any friends, she got bullied a lot too."

"Oh, thats a shame.."

"Yes, could you guys do me a favour? Well, Rikki a favour?"

"Yeah, sure, what do you want us to do?"

"Could you take Rikki out somewhere? Anywhere, the beach, the mall. I think it will do her a lot of good."

"Yeah, good idea, we'll go in and talk to her now."

Cleo, Lewis and I walked towards her bedroom door, knocked then entered. It was quite pointless for us to have waited for a reply. But we though we should at least let her know someone was coming in. Even if she was just sat in the same place, looking at the same piece of wall.

"Rikki?"

No answer. She was just sat on her bed, looking at the wall. None of us were expecting an answer, the only thing she had said since she came round 4 week ago was the shouted 'Get away from me!"'s.

"We were wondering, if you would like to come swimming with us to Mako. Do you remember Mako?"

Rikki turned around and looked at us, her eyes lit up, but she still didn't say anything. Me and Cleo got up, and Lewis went to help her get up too. But Rikki almost immediately burnt him, and shouted;

"GET. OFF. OF ME."

So we walked down to the beach. Cleo and me were extremely nervous, Lewis had gone off to do some fishing. Rikki was just following us along in neutral almost, no emotion, no speech. Nothing.

We got in the water, and she swam neutral. Not at all like she used to look like when she was swimming. She used to be all happy, looking at all the marine life, but now she was just; swimming. Swimming. We surfaced at Mako, in the moonpool.

"Rikki? Do you remember it here?"

"Rikki are you going to talk to us?"

"Rikki, we are your friends, remember. And friends don't hurt their friends. So that means we won't hurt you." I shook my head sadly, half to Cleo, half to Rikki.

"Hey Emma, look"

"What?"

"It's a note."

We all got out of the moonpool, and Rikki dried herself off, and stood as far away from Cleo and I as possible.

"What does it say?"

"_I'm sorry for what I did to you baby R, I realise now that what I did was wrong. But, as you know, we share a very short temper. I remember your tantrums from when you was little. I'm sorry darling, truly I am. I hope this will help you, just turn the page over, I love you. Never forget that."_

"Well, turn it over then!"

Cleo turned the page over, and on the back, a scale was cello-taped to the piece of paper.

"How will this help us?" Cleo asked, confused.

"I don't know" I replied, taking the scale off the piece of card. But as I did so, Rikki collapsed to the floor.

"Emma?" Cleo shreiked. "Look at Rikki?!"

I looked over, her tail had appeared, and she was laying face down in the sand.

"How does a scale, that when we touch it, knocks her unconscious, help us?"

"Hang on a second..." I said getting up, and moving closer to Rikki. I put my hand on her tail.

"Stop, she'll burn you!"

"Cleo, she's unconscious."

"Oh, yeah...What are you doing anyway?" She replied, coming over to me and Rikki.

"Watch.." I said, hoping to God it would work.

"Emma..." Cleo warned.

I had noticed a patch where one of her scales was missing, the gap was fringed with dried blood. I put the scale it the gap, and Rikki rolled over, her eyes as round as saucers. She continued rolling over in her tail, until she plopped into the moonpool, and disappeared under.

_Disappear_

"Oh, well done Emma. Now she's probably going to go and drown." Cleo said sarcastically, jumping in after Rikki.

Rikki surfaced, just before Cleo could go under to get her. Cleo was just staring at Rikki, to check if she was ok, I was just staring, hoping for the best.

"What?" She replied, loking at us both.

"Nothing..." Cleo said, eyeing her up.

"No, seriously, what have I done?" Rikki asked

We continued to stare at her.

"Oh. Well then," She said, splashing Cleo.

Cleo was floating about in the moonpool, her eyes wide in shock. Then, she just grabbed Rikki in a gigantic bear hug, just as Lewis came in, closely followed by Zane.

"Oh.." Lewis said, a bit scared as when he came in it looked as if Cleo was performing a lesbian act on Rikki, who he thought was in a trance. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything..." He continued, with a grossed out look on his face.

"Get lost Lewis." Rikki said, slyly.

"She SPOKE! She spoke!" Lewis shrieked. Zane just stood there gazing at her

"What _is_ everyone talking about?"


End file.
